FerricTDS – released today within the KVR DC’09

Inspired by the smooth dynamic shaping capabilities of some high-end reel-to-reel tape recorders, this plug-in simulates three of the most distinctive and much appreciated sonic effects generated by these devices:

DYNAMICS – gently shaping the overall dynamic response

SATURATION – adding extra harmonic-related content

LIMITING – controlling peak performance

Functions at a glance:

performs gentle audio dynamic treatments

masters difficult to handle audio material

adds extra harmonics and saturation effects

controls outgoing audio peaks

Plug-in specification:

Win32 / VST compatible

state-of-the-art digital signal processing

4x oversampled core algorithms

performance-critical parts are written in assembler

completely SSE-optimized

For more information, please refer to the manual.

FerricTDS is released within the KVR Developer Challenge 2009 and can be downloaded here.

I was waiting for that.
I just downloaded and I will try it tonigt….I made few test in the computer here in the office using a decent pair of headphones…..it sound great to me.
I’m pretty sure you will get my vote….also because I use a lot of your plugins and you really deserve it.

just a question:
you suggest to feed it with 0dBFS level, my idea of use is on a pseudo-mastering chain on effects….where do you suggest to put it to be able to get the most out of it?
for example:
DC filter
compressor
EQ
FerricTDS
Limiter/Maximizer
?
Thanks a lot

Sad thing is, since I tried your Density mkII beta (for SSE1), even when I put back the regular SS2 version on my new computer I can’t use it on Cubase sx3: hang, crash, errors …. It works on Reaper though. And it does the same thing with FerricTDS.

Sound: 8 (realy unique compression, better than Magneto, URS SAT, Ferrox, but not as good as Fatso. Dynamic is realy awsome and fantastic, but the SAT-Algo. should be more than just adding overall harmonics, more a pultec-like blend in Bass, smoothing out highs and pointing out the good mids.)

GUI: 5 (much bigger than nessecary, too big for Reaper on a 17″M., make the middle potis (Dyn. Sat.) smaller so that missing scale numbers can take place or put in instant numbers, appearing when dialed. Input poti also etremely missed ! Would fit good next to the “Trim”. The dark colour is quite more realistic and pleasant than Density`s blue. Good work, Patrick!)

CPU: 3 (Sorry, but 4xOS is not nessecary these days, 2xOS as a switchable option would be enough! Who still works in 44/48kHz ? Nobody wants to spend 14% of CPU for a little nice effect. VST-effects always come after VSTis and can only claim what the others left over.)

All in all: Focused on “Its only the sound that counts!” Ferric is the best tape-like compressor available for free and obviously the biggest too. :-)
Don`t give up, bootsy ! You are the “Payware-Killer” !

Well, it depends I guess.
CPU is around 2% to 3% here.
And the UI is just big enough for current monitors (2×26″ here @ 2x1920x1200), 17″ was ca 1987 …
Bootsie & Patrick have to make decisions about these things, and personally I’m glad they go for today’s standards.
Ymmv, sorry …

“CPU is around 2% to 3% here.”
I´m not talking about 2 or 3 percent on any supercool system out there. I`m talking about a subtle tape-like effect, that takes 9,33 times the CPU usage of the Trackplug Channelstrip with EQ, Comp and Gate enabled.

“17” was ca. 1987″
Next to “this is completely wrong”, have you ever heard about Laptops and Netbooks?

“I`m glad they go for todays standards.”
No plugin on my internet 17″ test-machine (cause not every tool is worthy to work on my supercool main system with a 24″ by the way) lacks space or goes above 13% CPU. If ferric sets a new standard with that, i`m not longer interested in freeware, as i still not depend on it anyway.

Sorry, but i decide for myself, whether a plugin is fantastic or improvable. Words like “fantastic”, “great”, “superb” means “stagnancy”, cause they rob all motivation for refinement.
And by the way: How “great” would bootsys plugins be, if he would demand 99$ for each?

Yeah, right, 96k on a netbook, how could I overlook that ?
I’m old and still trying to make ends meet @ 44k on a dated DAW from 2008.

Did it ever cross your mind to give back a bit of (well earned) praise to people who push the boundaries qualitywise and then even give away those wonderful (oops, I did it again ;-) ) plugins for free ?
While I like free stuff as much as anybody, personally I’d be ready to pay for Bootsie’s & Patrick’s plugins like I do for UA or SSL as they are just as irreplaceable for my work as those industry standards, amazing work, amazing generosity.
All imho of course, ymmv.

Of course it came in my mind and i did it often enough. And its realy a good compressor. If i write bad critics, its only to name the improvable things too, especialy if all others are only slobbering. (oh god! Now it will hail comments again! please try to be kind!)

If you don’t like the plug-in, don’t use it. Simple as that. Nobody is asking you to express any interest in Bootsy and Patrick’s hardwork. You are not paying jack for it anyway. Or may be, you are and we are unaware of that.

May be you can develop a better plug-in. I don’t know. Can you? Have you written a code in any programming language to develop a software before? Hmm . . . .

Nobody is deciding for you simply because he or she likes the plug-in. Nobody wants to hear you whine like a little child missing his Mommy’s breast milk either. Get over it. Geezzzz ! ! ! ! People these days.

If your CPU cycle is at 13% with this plug-in, whiles everybody’s CPU cycle is at 2, 3%, may be it is not obvious to you at all and you need somebody to point it to you that you may need a new and better system, DAW or tweak and update your system. How old is your Laptop or netbook anyways?

Nobody cares for your complaints. Just go and get yourself a new system. Your laptop from 1995 doesn’t cut it anymore. The plug-in is fine.

I’m enjoying mine, free and it sounds great. Who said anybody got problems here? Don’t be mad because no girl liked you as a boy and you were a virgin till you turned 30. You got married and were still a virgin till you turned 35 when your wife gave you some. Oh, poor you. Jealous, aren’t you?

I seriously believe that Bob is a poser from one of those commercial plug-in developers trying to sway and convince people not to use free plug-in but purchase their commercial expensive plug-ins. He is probably a sales person.

“If ferric sets a new standard with that, i`m not longer interested in freeware, as i still not depend on it anyway.”

Bob.

Who says that? Even Pro Engineers in big studios uses freeware. Bob is a suspect. Don’t listen to him.

Cool down, Mathew ! I´m more interested in Freeware and have more personal contact to free- and commercial plugin developers worldwide, than you might imagine, and all this only caused by private interests as musician. Read exactly: Only “If ferric would set a new standard with that (high CPU-usage)”.
I still not know, who bootsy is, but follow his developement since TesslaSE attentively. After the great and important MDA/Tbt/Kjaerhus/Eversmeyer wave, fortunately new highly motivated developers came up giving us awesome tools for 0€ or peanuts. Next to Breebaart, Meldaproduction, Terry West, ddmf and others, its particulary Bootsy, who shows, that it is possible to create professional plugins without commercial pressure and membership in the “iLok-Mafia”. I`m shure, that IK´s incredible Group buy and Line6´s Podfarm give-away this year are only 2 aftereffects of a global freeware-improvement. And they cannot longer explain this trend with only destructive rapidshare-thinking. For me (e.g.) there was no way around an iLok using my libtrary on a 64bit system. And by the way i also used some special offers from URS and RND. The UAD-1 was a gift last year (149€ inkl. 150$ voucher). But instead of getting lost in some “privileged circles” i (try to) use my experience to help freeware-developers like bootsy becoming better. If some people missunderstand that, i sometimes also tend to write hard words. If i did so, i`m sorry. But with your clement agreement, it would give me great pleasure to comment bootsys plugins in future.

“If ferric sets a new standard with that, i`m not longer interested in freeware, as i still not depend on it anyway.”
Bob

Bob, if you don’t depend on freeware at all, “as you claim” which I hardly believe, why all the big fuss, huh? Answer me that. Why are you loosing your night sleep over those of us who likes, praise and use this plug-in which upsets you so much? Why does it make your blood boil so much?

Please, read my first objective comment about this plugin till end, then read the over-emotionalized comments of others, and i`m shure you will understand.
I never said to have a laptop ! And i`m still below 30 years old. Ferric sounds fantastic and your girl-problem sound dramatic. I hope you will find a good one soon, so that you can leave such things out of a plugin post!

tried it on presonus studio one, on mix bus. sounds nice(like all your other plugins!). i’ll be voting for you, that’s for sure! you deserve a standing ovation for what you are doing Herbert and Patrick!

You’ll get my vote, too! I’ve had a lot of instability problems with Bootsie’s plugins using Reaper, but I’m such a huge fan of them that I think I’m going to switch DAW’s so I can use them. Can anyone recommend a DAW (PC) that works well with these?

Found a work-around for my problem and thought I’d post in case anyone’s having the same problem. In Reaper, if you right-click on plug-ins you can select “Buggy plug-in compatibility mode”. This has stopped all my crashes, unless I use more than one instance of the plugin in a project. If I want to run multiple instances, I have to create new dll’s of the plugin saved under different names and not use the same one twice.

Now I’m using Bootsy’s plugs almost exclusively and my mixes sound awesome! Thanks Bootsy and Patrick!!!

Thanks for the reply; I’ve done a bunch of digging and it’s apparently a known issue with Synthedit/Synthmaker plugins crashing Reaper. I’ll give Ableton a try. I should also add that I don’t really use any midi or do any sequencing; just straight audio recording.

At home i use them with Reaper under Wine on Ubuntu, with a SoundBlasterLive…you’ve to install some XP dll files in the Wine’s system32 directory to work with snthmaker plugins…You have to copy four dll files in the directory:
gdiplus.dll , mcf42.dll , MFC71.dll , msvcr71.dll

You did it again dude. Another plugin that blows away everything else in its class. For FREE. I’m putting my Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5042 tape emulator on Craig’s List on Monday, unless one of my friends wants it. Maybe I shouldn’t tell them about this plugin first. lol.

Ok you just received my vote Bootsy and Patrick, you deserve first place. The plugin is wonderful, I love the size, the worn and marked big knobs, the sound….EVERYTHING Well done. At some point, it may be nice to work on a few more presets, see what you come up with, would be cool.

Thanks you so much for all your hard work…no complaints from me, only praise!

Just realized you could donate to the prize fund. I kicked in some dough (since Bootsy won’t accept it directly) and encourage others to do the same if you can afford it! Let’s keep these generous developers housed and fed!

Defo getting my vote for sure… amazing plug in, sounds great, been visualising a plug like this and you did it.

Seriously, tons of gratitude and appreciation for what you do…whilst constructive critique is beneficial, don’t pay attention to ungrateful people who act like they pay good money for your work and just complain.

Just take in the useful critiques and ignore the rest! They just don’t get it…. It must take 4ever coding your projects and you don’t charge us a dime…I tried this plug on my laptop with tons of other plugs running and it only used 3% cpu…and I am not using a top spec model.
Thank you ever so much again,
Tarek

ps….I think you are aware of the new business model internet has created and I believe you are fully aware of what you are doing and will reap the awards accordingly:)

i have a problem with the nasty series.
all the nasty plugins dont show parameter names on the display … there are just knobs and no info for the knobs wich are really important.
ive googled for the problem without any results so i decided to ask here.
does anyone have a clue about this problem ? any suggestions ?

acually iam downloading new graphic drivers
but all the other plugins work and show parameter names.

iam grateful for any help because i really love the plugins and like to use them.

It seems to be a problem with the system fonts. Is there “Arial” installed on your system? Which OS and patch level?
In the newer plug-ins I’m avoiding potential system fonts trouble and in future updates I hopefully will fix that in the Nasty package too.

OS: xp servicepack 3.
arial is installed .
but you send me in the right direction.
i dont know if its possible but maybe the font was not registrated for some reason.
because – i went to “fonts” doubleclicked arial font to open it.
then i opend tuneup utilities and changed font style to “clear type” and magically it work again …
i can see all parameters.

your plugin is really nice. We actually use it alongside professional plugins like the SPL Twin Tube from now on. It has it’s own, nice character. And on top of that: It really looks nice and is fun to tweak knobs. And if that wasn’t already enough, even the Pdf documentation is nice. Overall a very professional appearance.

As for Bob’s criticism: It would be nice if you could add a UI-Size switch so it does not take up to much space on labptops. Just don’t make it smaller because it has a nice size on bigger screens like 24′. I know, even professional plugins don’t offer this option often, actually, from the top of my mind, only Waves Dorough Meters offer it. But maybe you can do it anyways.

As for the CPU consumption, sure it would be nice if it would take less power but I am quite fine with it. If there is room to improve the effiency, sure it would be nice. But on a decent machine it is not that big of a problem, especially if used just on the stero sum mastering bus.

Voxengo plugins allow to set the percentage for the size, 100% and a bit smaller or larger. But you’re right, almost no plugins offer this. And for the GUI engine Bootsy is using, it would be a big hassle so far as I know.

Input level dial would be most welcome. As far as range I typically to keep my peaks between -18db to -12db. So I’d saya minimum of 10db and and a max of 20db. Lastly would there be a way to auto compensate the output trim so there is no audible gain change… just saturation?

I want to try this plugin because I like the sound of Tape and your GUI looks realy great, but I have a problem to get this and the EQ/reverb plugins running on my DAW :(. If I try to use this (and the others) plugin, I see only the frame of the plufin window. If I drag the frame out of the monitor borders and back, the GUI will be redrawn but I cannot access any controls on it. First I thought, this plugins collide with other plugins, but i have the same problems on every audio software I am using (Cubase essential; reaper; accustica; etc.). Have anybody a similar problem or know anybody eventualy a solution?

I have updated my graphic card driver and I have updated to a new Version of reaper. In reaper the plugins seems to work now, but in Cubase they don’t :(. So I don’t think, it is aproblem of my graphic card (it could have be).
It seems to be a problem of synthmaker because I have recognized this problem also with other synthmaker plugin (like antress) yesterday. I think, I take a look at the synthmaker homepage now.

Yep that sounds like the one I was using!! You need to buy a separate graphics card for DAW generally. The NVidia GeForce cards are about the best. Also, get one that is 256mB or under and you’ll be sorted!

I’m running these plugs with a Radeon card and have no issues either, so a basic passively-cooled Geforce (7200-7300) or Radeon (3450 or 4550) will provide more stable video drivers and avoid such problems.

I’ve tried these plugs now with an actual reaper version and they are running (cool GUI und nice sound). I’ve tried them again in Cubase and the GUI is not working (the plugin as itself works! I hear it working). So I do not think, it is primary a problem of my graphic adapter. But I will try it, if I get a not so expensive graphic card.

Tried it on a session and it sounds freakin’ awesome. Unfortunately, next time I tried to load it on an insert, it crashed Cubase. So it’s a no-go until the stability is fixed. Using Cubase SX3 on a Windows XPsp2 Intel Core2 2.13GHz 2GB ram.

It crashes any host for me under XP, few to mention are Reaper, EnergyXT and FL Studio… Though works totally fine in Windows7, but I’m back to XP so it’s very frustrating that I can’t use Ferric there :(

Who else ? :-)
Big congrats to both of you, but don’t let it get to your heads, kinda easy to win with a plugin of Ferric’s qualities… ;-);-)
Serious again, just doing some acoustic mixes, FerricTDS gets good use for warming up things without messing with the acoustic character – try this with other tape-/saturation plugins …
Of course that doesn’t mean the rest of the projects is free of Bootsie’s plugins. :-)

I was demoing the UAD FATSO and you just saved me $300, so for that I thank you. Question: If I hold my breath until you make 64-bit versions of your wonderful toys (or at least FerricTDS), will I pass out? Keep on keepin’ on …

I’ve realized that I really need a dry-wet control on this…. I became so freaking dependent in the master/buss channel using an extreme saturation at about 30% volume mixed with dry signal 100% and followed by a good opto or gluing compressor
(beware of piano solos if you don’t want pure ol’style tapeish effect!!)
pleeeze!

Reblogged this on reg3n and commented:
Here’s one of my all time favourite dynamics processor & saturation emulation plugin’s! It’s not just that it adds warmth and punch, it takes those horrible spikes on the highs and smoothes them in a very pleasant way, and btw it’s FREE. 11/10 for this little beast.

I just rip my cds to wave 1440 kbps and add the classic tape setting and presto have full deep warm bass crisp full sizzling highs.im just curious because i really have to crank my volume knob on my stereo up very high is there a way to normalize the file before i burn it onto cd?

I realise this is now an old endeavour and an old plug-in, but is there any likelihood of it becoming 64-bit? I love it and don’t want to have to lose it when I eventually go 64-bit.
(Yes, I know about bit-bridges)

+1 on this!
The Ferric is the one and only dynamic processing tool (that’s how I use it) that has “survived” in my signal chain for voice over during my learning process in processing audio – which really started like chopping rocks with other rocks.
So – to stay in the picture – the FerricTDS was the bone I raised towards the sky like the neanderthalian in Kubricks “2001”.
By now I am pretty much out of the stone age and quite familiar with several kinds of dynamic processors, but I never achieved that sweetening, smoothing enhancement of presence *for my voice* that this “dial in/dial out” solution offers. It does something to the mids and highs that is hard to achieve that simple with other techniques.
Together with some of the also untouchable Slick EQ and some clean limiting to the taste it gives me all the choices I need to make – be it long form narration or that “slap in the face” commercial/trailer-sound.
Your work is really a gift in many ways, Bootsy! Thanks so much!
But because I switched to 64bit recently and although Cubase offers its own bit bridging, the Ferric causes occasional drop outs. – I haven’t experienced that with the PreFix (great great tool also! Use it for expanding).
To get to the point: Would it make sense to dream of a 64bit version of the Ferric?
All the best and thanks again,
Mike

That is an amazing piece of vst. Usually people use it as a glue compressor, but trust me, if you twitch the knobs you can reach amazing compressor effects. I’ve tried many master bus compressor, but for some reason I keep only this one.

Not to contradict you, I’m using saturation sparingly myself and then it’s Bootsie’s stuff.
But FerricTDS is different, it has the most gentle, warm compression I’ve found yet ITB, the saturation is just a welcome bonus on top.
Very close to sensibly used 2″ tape imho.

My general understanding is that dynamics processors and EQ (parametric and band-filtered varieties, respectively) are really the same if you strip away their unique saturating characteristics, since all they’re really doing otherwise is performing math on waveforms. We might say we want a compressor, but what we really want I think is regular ol’ generic gain-reducing mathematics with a big box of some nifty analog warmth and magic dust strapped to its butt. So you take itI’m no code-jockey, though, and I’ve very little experience with the wonders of real analog gear, so maybe it’s a gross over-simplification I’ve made here, I don’t know.

But, yeah, one could as easily say the ‘market’ for any type of effect plugin is pretty ‘over-saturated’ these days. The new channel strip will be much appreciated, certainly, but, while I’m sure Bootsy will have all sorts of neat little innovations under the hood, its main attraction will be more in the realm of improved workflow and cpu efficiency. I’m still very excited about NastyXTC, if that’s still in Bootsy’s plans. In the meantime, I welcome any and all of Bootsy’s new saturators–even if there are plenty to choose from out there, he always seems to bring something a little different and inspiring to the table, and Ferric is certainly no exception to this.

Sometimes though I do ponder what it’d be like if Bootsy gave us a noise-maker to stick through his processors–the Nasty Boot Virtual Analog Synthesizer, perhaps. Bootsy’s code wrapped in a sexy Patrick GUI… ah, a man can dream…

sorry dude, about dynamics processors, there’s a lot involved… evelope followers, a/r behaviours, detector techniques, prefiltering settings, and many more.( all those parameters should be checked also for circuit modelling).. in some situations, the distortion happens already in the gain riding, not just in the gain staging… try to give a quick look @ dmg compassion or meldadynamics …I’m not even sure that they both have every possible parameter I could imagine.

[…] me of my other favorite plugin, the one I’ve been waiting a long time for someone to make: FerricTDS from Variety Of Sound. Feels and sounds like my old MCI tape machine with Ampex 456 tape). When you mixed down to a […]

[…] a delay on the intro and all the samples are 100% dry no FX, I just added some saturation from the FerricTDS plugin (Concidentally, the winner of the KVR challenge ’09) on the master channel because I […]